Tuesday, March 30, 2010

"Deathfang, bloodied and battered sulked in his prison cell. Shackled to the wall, he wondered if he would ever be free again. Is there any hope of escape for our hero?" This is a piece by my son Alex depicting his character, Deathfang in a suspenseful moment of peril. Nice job dude!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Steve Silver is without question one of the most inspiring artists I know. I first met Steve at the ISCA (NCN) convention in 2004. At the time, the animated series Kim Possible was at the height of its popularity and Steve was the lead character designer on that show. I remember looking at the rough draft of one of his books the first day of the convention and marvelling at every single page. I went to his seminar and chatted with him every chance I could. One night, the convention was open to the public for a few hours, so I invited my children to come see what their father had been up to all week. Kathy wore her Kim Possible shirt and caught Steve's eye. Kathy was delighted to meet him, and I was amazed at how gracious he was. The final day of the convention at the awards banquet, Steve presented me with this picture and said it was for Kathy: Astounding! We still have it hanging up in our living room.

Steve was recently featured on HGTV's The Antonio Project. His appearance is featured below.

I have every one of Steve's books, and reference them constantly. You can order his books for yourself by checking out his blog at http://www.stephensilver.blogspot.com/ Remember, you can always click his and other great links to the right.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Coming up with characters and stories has been something that I've always had a lot of fun with. This guy is a character I've been thinking about for a while, and although he's not exactly what I want the final version of him to look like, he's pretty close. He's a solitary mechanical man who lives in a mansion, is incredibly wealthy and fights for justice with all sorts of gadgets and weapons (okay, kinda like Batman...fine). Occasionally in the story, his history is told through a series of flashbacks, each going further back in time. We see how he has upgraded his body as technology advances, the people and events in history that he has encountered, and his ultimate origin. Turns out he's been around in some form or another for a VERY long time. I'm going to develop this idea further, because I just don't have enough going on right now :)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

So far, I've taken hundreds...nay, THOUSANDS of photographs of our new baby Jett. I'm trying to limit myself to one Jett post a week, so here's one of my favorite photos from the most recent batch of Jett pics.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Last night while I was drawing caricatures at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, a guest approached me with a photo and a request. I was to draw a friend of his as Indiana Jones with some accompanying text. Given the subject matter, I was more than happy to oblige.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Harrison wanted his caricature to be a face and body in color, but when I asked him what he wanted to be doing in the picture, he couldn't come up with anything. He decided to let me figure it out on my own. I found out how old he was, and armed with only that information and my knowledge of what most 11 year old kids want, I went to work. So I drew him with big muscles and camouflage pants, holding a lightsaber in one hand and playing a video game with the other, and riding a dinosaur that's on a skateboard with a flaming skull on it. Needless to say, he loved it.

I'm still coming down after a long convention weekend. MegaCon 2010 was a huge success for me. I sold out of both the Durkin's Dragons calendars and the first Durkin's Dragons book, and I sold lots of copies of Durkin's Dragons: Parodies and Tributes as well as the first two chapters of Black Cat Bone. Apologies to anyone not able to get the books they wanted before I ran out. Remember, you can always order them by clicking the links to the right. Durkin's Dragons: Parodies and Tributes will be available soon.

MegaCon is a great opportunity to "get your geek on" as evidenced by the pictures below:

Although I'm not necessarily a "car guy" I do appreciate the great motor vehicles from pop culture, like the Mach 5 from Speed Racer,

The Ectomobile from Ghostbusters,

The Flintstones' car,

and Luke's landspeeder from Star Wars.

Alex really got into it. He even dressed up. He created this character called the "Dreamkiller" a being who destroys your dreams with his sword. He claims he came up with idea for the brown robes first and the Jedi ripped him off.I drew him in my sketchbook.

Here's my friend Sarah and her friend Black Cat. Meow!

Brad from the Dharma Initiative had no answers about the island for me. None.

Alex is confronted by an Astromech.

One of the best replica Artoo units I've ever seen. I'm going to have one of these some day.

Grievous and Butthead.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by. It was great meeting you all. Be sure to stop by the blog every day for the latest from Durkinworks!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

MegaCon 2010 has officially wrapped up. Good Times! I just dropped Boy #1 off (he spent the whole weekend at MegaCon with me) and I'm now getting caught up with Boy #2 and my beautiful wife. Come back tomorrow for a full MegaCon 2010 report.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Great convention so far, but I'm super tired, so I'm going to make this post rather brief. Here is my table setup for MegaCon. Originally, I had 5 items for sale, but I sold out of the calendars! I sold a bunch of the other books as well. I even had a gentleman who wanted a dragon sketch for his sketchbook. I included a bit of him in the drawing. Plenty more tomorrow. I'm going to bed!

Friday, March 12, 2010

The first day of Megacon was a short one for me, although I'm almost sold out of calendars already. Met some new folks, and got caught up with some old friends. I'll have a more in-depth report tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out the signage at the entrance to MegaCon.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Whew! Finished the new Durkin's Dragons book just in time. I'll be an attending artist at MegaCon in Orlando this weekend. I'll be selling Black Cat Bone, Chapters 1 and 2, the first Durkin's Dragons book, the Durkin's Dragons 2010 Calendar and the new Durkin's Dragons book. Stop by the Burgundy section, I'll be set up at table #16A. See you then!

Sunday, March 07, 2010

It's back to work for me. I'm on my way to draw live at the retail caricature stand at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. I've had a great week off, spending quality time with my wife and our new addition, Jett. I'm trying to keep the baby pics to a minimum here, though I've probably taken hundreds. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

The flash in this picture really shows off his blonde hair. The mittens are to keep him from scratchin up his face. He's such a good baby...

Friday, March 05, 2010

Steve Hearn is one of my dearest friends and is today's Links Spotlight.

Steve is an amazing artist from England who is a source of constant support and inspiration for me. I met Steve at the very first ISCA (NCN) convention I had ever attended in 2003. I remember how I wanted, quite simply, to have my caricature drawn by an international artist. I walked past Steve drawing at a table and found out by reading his name tag that he was from the U.K. I requested a caricature of me by him and he politely obliged. We talked about artwork, fatherhood and other interests we had in common (beer) and instantly became friends.

We made it a point to keep in touch after the convention and did. We attended subsequent conventions together and Steve has always made it a point to visit when he comes to Florida on holiday.

This caricature of Steve (with the unintentionally screwed up Union Jack) was a pivotal piece for me. It happened at the 2004 convention when I was frustrated about my drawings and couldn't pin down a "style" that I was happy with. I decided to be true to myself and draw strictly to make myself happy. The caricature of Steve was the first in the series I did, and became the jumping off point, my "EUREKA" moment for the rest of the convention. That year I placed 2nd in Best Cartoon Style. The following year at the 2005 convention, I got 1st place in Best Cartoon Style.

It was at the last convention I attended with Steve in 2006 where I did this caricature of him that I received 2nd place again for Best Cartoon Style.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Let me just preface this post by stating that I'm honored to be a dad. I love all three of my children, and I'm grateful for my newest one, who just turned 7 days old.

My first two children are 13 and 11, which puts me in the "seasoned veteran" category of parenthood, however, I haven't had the experience of a newborn baby in well over a decade. I'm not sure if I'm just a bit rusty, or that I'm older now, but it sure seems much more physically, mentally and emotionally draining to have an infant this time around.

Besides the care and feeding of little Jett, I'm also commandeering the rest of the day-to-day duties of the household. Mommy is doing everything she can, but as a first time mom who also is healing and feeding the boy all day and night, her energy and time are pretty much accounted for. It's my duty, therefore, to cook, clean and otherwise take care of everyone. I don't mind, of course. I consider being a husband and a father to be both an honor and a privilege. But that also means I've been a bit of a zombie lately, always awake, exhausted, in a daze and slightly smelling of some odor.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Indulge me if you will. I'm posting more baby pics. I love this kid! By the way, we've chosen his middle name, Lukas.

Jett Lukas Durkin. I like that....Jett seems to be constantly in motion. Even if we have his arms and legs swaddled, his face is still always moving around. This is one of 17 billion facial expressions he has.